"I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it." — William Faulkner

Tag Archives: Elizabeth Olsen

I grew up watching Toho’s many incarnations of Godzilla. I loved Godzilla – especially the 1989 Godzilla: Monster of Monsters Nintendo video game. I loved all of the films too, from the iconic 1954 Gojira original to the ridiculousness of “Baby Godzilla” blowing bubbles to the overly melodramatic Godzilla 1985 to the righteously badass Marv Newland animated student film Bambi Meets Godzilla (for the love of god, Youtube it) – still my favorite in the canon, and in that one we only ever see the monster’s foot, so quit your whining about his 2014 screen time! Because of its Japanese origins stemming from real nuclear horrors, it was an inherently silly franchise that somehow always carried some weight, or the illusion of weight…as if it was far more serious or important than it really was. Also our fond memories of watching it as children fogged the reality of its natural stupidity. For some ungodly reason, fans still reeling from the rape of Godzilla in 1998 placed insanely lofty expectations on this latest film incarnation thinking that this Godzilla had to be something more – it had to match our fantasies…it had to be everything we ever dreamed of.

In steps Gareth Edwards, indie director of the silly emo but shockingly effective character drama, Monsters, that had two unlikely people falling in love while trying to get out of Mexico – a Mexico that just happened to be under quarantine due to some rampaging giant walking…squids? It was a fun little genre mash-up. Continue reading →

Remember the episode of Seinfeld where George was dating the woman who looked like Jerry and Kramer was far too eager to diagnose the “perverse sexual amalgam” and “George’s man-love for a she-Jerry?” Ah, funny stuff, right? Good times. Good times. Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is kinda like that episode of Seinfeld only imagine George is a renowned plastic surgeon (played by Antonio Banderas) with a deeply personal motivation for creating the perfect skin-graft for burn victims and his girlfriend is the man who raped his suicidal daughter whom against which he holds a fetishistic vendetta. Wait…what? No…that’s not right.

Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In is like David Lynch’s Lost Highway re-imagined by a hysterical Spanish woman with a gender-identity crisis. Yeah…that’s it…that’s the ticket. Or maybe not. Continue reading →

The Spin at the Movies

Currently in Theaters:

NOTHING - it's that time of year - the late winter Hollywood doldrums.

The Spin’s Netflix Pick of the Month

Force Majeure: The film that should've won Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars is a Swedish domestic drama about one family's unraveling while on a skiing vacation in the French Alps. Waxing in Carver-esque fashion on family, responsibility, trust and what it means to be a man in modern times, the film expertly shows how one false move can lead to an avalanche of raw emotions previously unexplored. A great little film that should spark meaty conversation amongst those who watch it making it an intellectual date movie of sorts.